Psychiatric disorders in patients attending a dermatology outpatient clinic.

BACKGROUND

Psychiatric comorbidity in patients with skin disorders has been reported.

OBJECTIVE

To find out the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in dermatology outpatients and to investigate the factors that affect the psychiatric symptoms.

METHODS

256 patients attending our dermatology outpatient clinic completed a 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) following their dermatologic examination. A standardized personal interview was performed to establish a psychiatric diagnosis in patients sampled by using a stratified random sampling method.

RESULTS

The prevalence of psychiatric disorders was found to be 33.4% in the study group. The mean of the total GHQ scores of the sample group (n = 256 patients) was 3.656. The duration of the dermatologic complaints, sex of the subjects, localization of the lesions, and dermatologic diagnosis did not affect the total GHQ scores of the patients.

CONCLUSION

Psychiatric comorbidity in 33.4% of the dermatology outpatients indicates the need for considering emotional factors for an effective management of the cutaneous disorders.